helicopper

Advanced ICS (ICS-400) ICS for Major and/or Complex Incidents Town of Poughkeepsie Community Room 19 Tucker Drive Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29th, 2008 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. I_400_announcementDutchessCoMay28_29.pdf

Principles of Emergency Management (G - 230) SEMO Region 2 Office 171 Cheney Drive Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 Monday April 21, 2008 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Tuesday April 22, 2008 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Wednesday April 23, 2008 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Announcement_Principles_of_EM_SEMO_R2.pdf PDS_Brochure.pdf

Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents (I –300) Putnam County Training and Operations Center 112 Old Route Six – Building 3 Carmel, N.Y. 10512 Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. ~All Sessions MUST be Attended~ I_300_AnnouncementPutnamMay08.pdf

I'm with you on the early notification and stand-by but "auto-launch" based upon dispatch information seems imprudent. If the dispatch information is wrong and the medevac is not needed you've tied up a scarce resource and expended a significant amount of unrecoverable money. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for expediting the trip for someone to a trauma center, I'm just looking for clarification of the "auto launch".

Commo types correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think most FCC licenses are restricted by geography but rather by transmit power. So, if the Village PD can hit their repeater from the Town or the County Jail or whereever, they're not in violation of their license. There are a great many ways to coordinate communications to limit interference by other users of the same frequency and that is a great topic for another thread if you'd like to start it. As for the the original question about law enforcement use of ICS and coordination of resources... Law enforcement has been using ICS concepts for far longer than NIMS required or they even realized. They just weren't as "formalized" as ICS dictates. As for interagency coordination, most local mutual aid involves fairly small numbers of PO's and there is generally no unified command (the agency hosting the party is in charge). For larger mobilizations, there may be more supervisors but the job still belongs to the hosting agency. All the emergency services can improve their resource management (another NIMS requirement) especially during fast-breaking incidents but the basic concepts of ICS are taking root and becoming more commonplace. From a training perspective, the PD's in our area have made great strides in increasing their academic training on ICS, even up through the 400 (Advanced) level. Most are now implementing ICS on a practical level at least some of the time also. Tactically, at the scene of the mutual aid assignment, most units will either switch to the hosting agency's radio frequency or make face-to-face contact for assignment. There are also interoperability frequencies available to law enforcement.

You took the words right out of my keyboard... We have departed a bit from the original inquiry but staffing is related so I understand why it came up. SOP's without people to implement them are useless. The sensitivity to staffing makes everyone hesitant to develop an SOP that will "require" staffing rehab at an incident when staffing for the incident is an issue. Barry's point about the liberal use of mutual aid at "routine" (I use that word reluctantly and only because I can't think of a better one - I know "there's no such thing as routine" so please spare us the lecture!) incidents is valid but since we're doing it already, what's one more department? I'm not saying that there isn't a problem, I'm just saying that we should fix one thing at a time and rehab seems like a pretty easy fix. As for officer's who don't believe in the importance of rehab, get your head out of the sand - we're not machines, we're not invincible, and we do suffer heart attacks, heat exhaustion, etc. Read ALS's post about the standards out there and ask yourself if you really want to be questioned in front of a jury about why you chose to ignore nationally accepted standards to protect your personnel after a negative outcome. Spare me the 150 years of tradition nonsense! You want to fly that flag, trade in your spiffy apparatus and get a couple of horses!

Rob, you're not alone in your opinion. Here's a thread where this was discussed a while back... http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php?s=&s...ost&p=86134 After yesterday, a whole lot more people are probably thinking the same thing.

PLEASE POST AND DISTRIBUTE The Westchester County Department of Emergency Services, in conjunction with the Westchester County Airport, will be hosting an exciting moulage training program. Moulage is used during simulated training scenarios to provide first responders with a realistic look at the physical effects of injury and illness. The moulage training program will be given by Image Perspectives from Carson City, Nevada. The program is designed to educate participants in the latest moulage techniques, and how to utilize inexpensive products to simulate injury and illness. The training program is being offered free of charge. Each participant must be available to assist in a moulage exercise on May 3rd, 2008 at the Westchester County Airport MCI Drill. Participating first responders must attend all training classes which will be held from April 14th through April 18th, 8am to 4pm, at the DES Training Center, 4 Dana Road, Valhalla. All visitors must use the parking located adjacent to the new DES support facility on Walker Road. If you or someone from your agency would like to sign up, or have any questions regarding the class, please contact Ms. Nyle Salley at (914) 231-1495, or email her at nas5@westchestergov.com . Course Info: moulage.pdf Looks pretty real, doesn't it? Info courtesy of Westchester County DES

So MV was rated "fair". New Rochelle was "very good" and Schenectady was "good". What's the scale?

Who says that EMS has to run the rehab operation? Ideally, it should be run by people with medical training but that could be other FD resources. If you don't have enough resources, call more - call mutual aid if need be but as ALS points out, rehab is not a luxury, it is a necessity. j, I hear ya - there are never enough especially to have them sitting around. As for not calling EMS to the scene of a fire until a second alarm, can't/don't FF get hurt at the first alarm? I hear lots of agencies operate that way and it always baffled me. FF with SCBA going into hazardous environments or simply operating with full PPE and exerting themselves (think cardiac issues) but no EMS on scene. What ever happened to being proactive?

Standing by in case of injuries and rehab should be two separate assignments. The resource(s) assigned to rehab should be able to focus on setting up an appropriate environmentally friendly facility (cool in summer/warm in winter) and monitoring fire crews. This should be collocated or at least near whereever the crews are changing SCBA bottles. Another resource(s) should be, as NY10570 stated, ready with equipment appropriate for the call and probably located near the ICP or near/with the FAST so they know when someone is in trouble/hurt. They should be able to transport without affecting the rehab operation. On the subject, do FAS teams do any sort of immobilization prior to moving an injured member or do they just drag them out?

While you may be technically correct that an employer can't stop you from leaving, the flip side is they can prevent you from RETURNING! Private sector or "at will" employees may not have the luxury of a union to defend them against sanctions for leaving during the work day. You're absolutely right about the need to discuss it with your employer prior to the tones going off! I wonder if an employer can take a tax deduction for your volunteer duties while on their time - that may be an incentive for the private sector to go along with this. The proposed bill only applies to municipal (public) employees. It states that right in the opening passages. Frankly, I think this whole thing just serves to further highlight the problem of simply not having enough personnel to cover the calls! Regardless of whether this becomes law or not, the issue will cause workplace problems. If someone else has to pick up your slack, or your boss has to hear from those who don't volunteer about your missing work, getting paid, and them having to stay it will eventually cause employers to cut back on their volunteer spirit. I've seen it firsthand with smokers. Can't smoke in the building so you can take "smoke breaks" to go outside to smoke. Well, a few non-smokers started taking "smoking breaks" because they picked up the slack in the smokers absence. A freakin' management nightmare!

I'm writing that down!!! Oh wait, it's an April fool gag!!!

According to the article, the civilian vehicle was passing through the intersection with a green light and the FD vehicle may or may not have been using his siren. Given those facts, you'd be hard pressed to meet the burden of proof to convict someone of failure to yield right of way to an emergency vehicle. Even with his siren on, the other vehicle had a green light and the FD had RED. That means STOP! Then go. Bottom line, if the article is correct, the FD was at fault. I have no firsthand information but my guess would be passing a red light (VTL 1111-d1). Applicable statutes:

While I can certainly see the humor in it - to an extent - I do have some concerns about the whole thing. How did the police get called? Was it by the aspiring film makers themselves? Did they (falsely) report a keg party to facilitate the making of this "movie"? Whose house was it? Did anyone (party-goers or cops) call any parents to pick up their little cherubs? Where were the owners (parents) of the house? Why is it so funny that the police tested everyone to be sure that there was no alcohol involved? Isn't that the responsible thing to do? Do you really think that the next or last keg party they threw was root beer again? Ironically, the person singled out in this video "Dustin" has a starring role in another with a Heineken keg. Had these kids placed a theatrical smoke generator in the attic resulting in smoke pouring out of the eaves when you pulled up to a "fire call" would it still be as amusing? I think the intent was to make the police look bad by "fooling" them. What a colossal waste of time and resources - the police couldn't just leave on the say so of these high schoolers that it was just root beer. It also makes me wonder how many run-ins they had with the police during alcohol keg parties. It really concerns me that this group has such little respect for emergency services, in this case the police. What are they going to be like in ten years or worse yet when they become parents themselves.

It wasn't that long ago that we were discussing the new "rescue medics" here... http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php?s=&s...st&p=110041 Great job, guys! That's the way to promote EMS!

I appreciate your position and recognize the difficulties you're facing. BUT, you don't have to do it that way just because that's the way you always did it. Point to agencies that DO require rostered crews - one night a week is NOT a big stretch and nothing says that you can't switch with someone else if something comes up. There are a LOT of volly agencies that do roster crews so they don't have to wake EVERYONE up for EVERY call. The by-product is also usually shorter "time-to-intervention" times (thanks CKROLL!).

Just curious, what agency? Does someone have to remain for you until you get there?

Not to be too negative here but isn't requiring an employee to release or otherwise excuse a member of an FD/EMS agency for calls during their work-day like compelling them to donate to the agency? If I leave work to respond on an EMS call and my boss still has to pay me for those two hours, my EMS agency benefits and my employer suffers. Work isn't getting done by me during those two hours and the EMS agency dodges the real issue of inadequate staffing. How is that an equitable arrangement? Frankly, I'm surprised more employers aren't resistant to the idea regardless of civic mindedness and supporting the community. It's a really tough economy out there these days and who can afford to pay employees who aren't there!

Did ya see it? What's up with the pursuit ending thing?

Is this a pre-requisite to hiring of FF? Does Westchester use the same in its civil service testing/hiring process?

Relying on a single aircraft to cover the entire State of CT is a bit much. They could definitely justify additional aircraft/personnel to cover territory that large. It has a lot to do with the general lack of understanding/appreciation for what aviation can offer. Usually, in this part of the country, we only call aviation for "the big ones". However in other parts of the country, aviation responds on lots of jobs that aren't that big a deal. The result, a lot more bad guys get caught! To give it a little bit more perspective, the CITY of Los Angeles has 17 police helicopters and operates 24/7/365 - from 0900-0100 (sometimes later) there is ALWAYS an aircraft in the air - they actually have to wait for a relief ship to launch before they can land! OK, LAPD is an animal of its own. Closer to home and much more moderately sized is the City of Columbus, Ohio who has FIVE helicopters staffed 24/7. Back on the left coast, the City of Huntington Beach (a city not much larger than Yonkers) also has five aircraft. We just don't give aviation the same treatment as the left side of the country. But that's nothing new and certainly not limited to aviation! As for the cost, it is far less than $1000 per hour to operate a Bell 407 - closer to half that. Unfortunately, maintenance does take time and major inspections can take five weeks put CT in the unenviable position of being completely out of service when requests like Norwalk's come up. True, but both Nassau and Suffolk are primary MEDEVAC providers and may not be able to send their aircraft out of the county (out of the State in this case) due to their responsibilities as EMS ships. The NYPD has the luxury of more staffing and more aircraft so mutual aid is less of an issue to them. (Did you think I was gonna let this topic get past me? )

I don't know if this is what you're referring to but this legislation applies to deployments as part of the National Guard, other reserve entities, FEMA, NDMS, etc. It is protecting employees on long-term assignments (14-31 days for example). I'm not aware of any legislation that would protect you on routine, day-to-day EMS or fire calls. http://www.dol.gov/elaws/userra.htm Synopsis (not subject to copyright/redistribution limitations): As you can see from the second quote, fire and EMS are not the uniformed services being referred to here. This document is a FAQ about it prepared for NDMS: USERRA_Facts_NDMS.pdf Sounds like your friend either has to educate and win over his boss or make the decision about which "job" is more important to him. I know that a LOT of employers these days will not release an employee for fire/ambulance calls during the workday as it affects their business.

Legally EMS agencies must charge everyone - regardless of residency, etc. How aggressively they do that is another thing. I don't think Mahopac or the Falls CAN bill for services as they are FD ambulances whereas Carmel is an independent VAC.

What do you all think of this?